#spam bot warning

[onnoffwrites]

AO3 SPAM BOT WARNING

So I got a sussy ass comment on my new fic and thought I'd put the info out there JUST IN CASE there a bunch of these spam bots roaming around on ao3. So y'all can see what kind of language they use and how u can protect yallselves.

It started with me getting this comment. Already, I'm sure y'all can see that it looks sus af. FIRSTLY, bc no one ever read my fic and commented like this. Sure, I've gotten "I love your idea." But it NEVER follows up with a "I'm a pro" and "dm me."

Already, I'm sus, BUT I didn't want to accidentally sic ao3 support staff on someone who maybe just types that way. So of course I looked up the user they provided. And I gotttttttt? NOTHING. Nothing on Google, nothing on Tumblr, nothing on Twitter. I can prob try to look for more places but this account is literally active on Tumblr + ao3 (despite what my bio might say lol).

Still, I was giving the sus comment the benefit of the doubt and went to check their ao3 profile, just in case I'm being too paranoid and

CREATED YESTERDAY? THE DAY I POSTED THE FIC? THAT JULIANNA COMMENTED ON? HMMMMMMMMMMM SUSSY

By this point my tech friends have already immediately responded to my comment screen shots with a simple "bot" and after all my "benefit of the doubt" search just keeps proving my gut instinct correct. I decided to report to AO3.

Who responded and acted on the report so quickly the resolution email came before the automated "we received your report" email, lmao.

So the comment has been removed from my fic. Yay.

Now the account is still around so I'm gonna ask them for they're gonna do something about that. So we'll see I guess. But here ya go! Internet safety everyone!

[sheena-is-a-punk-rocker]

I'm not sure if anyone is actively using fanfiction.net to post their work but should probably still say this. The spam bots have made their way over there. I've gotten a shit ton of messages from people who "love my work" and "want to create art for it" and asking whether or not I'm active on any other platforms. These are bad Twilight fanfics I wrote back in high school. Nothing about them is "great writing" or "captivating"

I honestly don't use ff.net enough to really give much of a shit about DOING anything about it, but I am probably gonna delete all my work from there once I get the spoons

[walks-the-ages]

[[ID: A cropped screenshot of the tumblr inbox, showing an ask from user @bugsbunnyanddaffyduck saying: "OOC: can i ask for help please? I'm isolated in my home because of the latest COVID variant and medications for pre-existing disabilities had already distorted my physical body." End ID]

Spam Warning!

there's zero posts on this blog

this blog has no 'liked' content

this tumblr is following 20 blogs total, none of which are me or any of the people they've sent messages to

you can't actually @ the blog properly (it comes up with another empty blog whos URL is @/ bugsbunnyanddaffyduck--blog)

when I search tumblr for this user?

[ID: A cropped screenshot of tumblr search results showing four blogs with their urls blacked out, two of them with visible messages from the user in question while the other two are tagging the user and asking for more information. end ID]

From November 2022 (aka two months ago as of me making this post) this account has sent 4 messages to random people they do not follow, All along the lines of asking for this unspecified "help", with no details and literally nothing on their blog to show they even exist.

Anyways, I typed out all of the above ^^^ last night, reached out to a few people that had been messaged, and saved this as a draft before heading to bed.

It's now the next day and one of the users messaged me back to confirm not only is it spam, it's even worse! It's some kind of gross fetish thing, too. If you respond to them or message them directly that's when I assume they start doing gross shit.

SO! Everyone, please block and report this user for spam, and do not respond to any of their asks, if you receive them! Block both Bugsbunnyanddaffyduck and Bugsbunnyanddaffyduck--blog to be safe.

If they come into your inbox, click on their profile photo and open in a new tab to report them for spam there and black them, before clicking back to your inbox in the other tab and using the three dot menu to report the message itself for spam.

Once that's done it will hide the message from your inbox, on Desktop you can 'delete all messages' to get rid of any hidden messages you've reported for Spam or abuse-- "ghost messages" as I like to call them, the way they haunt your inbox otherwise. You might have to click on the 'delete all messages' once or twice for it to take effect, but it helped me clear out a lot of spam ghost messages from mobile notifications.

here's the links to the two blogs to block and report them: --blog and asker